


The Larry Thing

by getalittleclosey



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M, M/M, eleanor shipping harry and louis is cannon obviously, figuring out how this works??, finally decided to move my fics to ao3 so, lots of niall!!!, overuse of the name larry sorry??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-09
Updated: 2013-02-09
Packaged: 2017-11-28 17:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/676828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/getalittleclosey/pseuds/getalittleclosey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically Eleanor accidentally starts shipping Louis and Harry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Larry Thing

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't new, it was originally posted on my tumblr in September and I can't believe the reaction it got there and I just wanted to get everything I've written on ao3 and anyway I hope you like it! ps this is all lies

It starts off as just one of those ideas she got from a "fan" of her. She sifts through lots of tweets every day just because she's just barely 20 and she's curious. Some of those ideas are crazy, yes she can admit that. Like that she lies about her birthday or her name, that she's cheating on Louis with Brian (which is funny because Brian is gay), or that she's in love with Danielle. And some are borderline hurtful like that she doesn't eat, she's only dating Louis for the fame or that she's a gold digger.

 

But there's one that keeps coming back over and over again. It's been there since the beginning but it's gained strength and she gets so many tweets about it that she begins to ignore her mentions and even her timeline.

 

You see, she knows it's not true and she knows it's just one of those fan things. The fans sometimes think that Zayn and Liam or Liam and Niall are in a relationship and it never seems to bother Danielle. And when she sees people pairing her and Danielle or even her and her friend Ella together she laughs and plays it up because Ella is her best friend so yes she's going to say they’re together. That's just what friends do.

 

So that's what the whole Harry and Louis thing is. The Larry thing. It's a joke, a thing the fans created because Harry and Louis have been close since the day they met and spurred on by Harry and Louis because they like it. It's fun for them and so they play up the bromance for the cameras and the fans.

 

But lately Eleanor knows it has been harder. If Louis decides to sling his arm around Harry or Harry whispers something in Louis' ear suddenly it's a thing and Larry is "real."

And Eleanor knows this, of course she does. Louis is dating her and they go on dates and kiss and they have met each others' families and Harry and Louis are just friends.

 

So Eleanor knows it's a joke.

 

But she's also curious.

 

Because why do the fans seem to believe in Larry more than any other pair? More than Ziam or Niam or Ziall or any of the other names the fans have come up with. Why is Larry a thing and why don't they like her? Why don't they accept and want Elounor?

Eleanor knows she has support but she sees the tweets that they send. She may not react to it, but she sees the

 

"@eleanorjcalder just leave and stop getting in the way of the beauty that is LARRY"

 

"@eleanorjcalder is so obviously not in love with Louis and Louis isn't in love with her. Just look at this picture HAHAHHAAHA"

 

And Eleanor's not bulletproof. It hurts sometimes when people think that she doesn't love Louis just because of how they look at the airport. Who is even happy at the airport?

 

So she clicks a tweet with a link. In hindsight maybe it wasn't her smartest decision but it was a Wednesday and class was boring. So off to ummm...tumblr? it was. And yeah, that's the site all the fans keep asking her about and _no_ she doesn't have one, does she need to say it again?

 

Turns out she's on someone's blog and she looks to the side and there's a picture of Louis and Harry hugging in a parking lot and a caption stating "Larry is real and if you don't see it you're blind”

 

And suddenly she's scrolling on her iPhone through pictures of Harry and Louis together. There are pictures of their arms linked together and a picture of Louis grinning at Harry during a photoshoot and a moving picture of Harry staring, just staring, at Louis during an interview. Next is one of them both sitting on that Friends style couch during a concert and Louis' laying back on it and Harry is sitting on the armrest and they are both looking at each other smiling like they couldn't be happier.

 

Somebody behind Eleanor coughs and Eleanor looks up, cheeks flushed and locks her iPhone, feeling like she's been snooping on her boyfriend. She shakes her head and goes back to taking notes.

 

~

That night Eleanor is going to a party with Louis. She dresses up and does her hair and sometimes it bothers her that the cameras will be watching, that she's not allowed to wear the same outfit twice or have a hair out of place. But it's worth it because Louis.

Louis picks her up and gives her a kiss hello and walks her to his car. The boys will meet them there as usual.

 

"Is Danielle going?" she asks because sometimes it's lonely while the boys get interviewed or Louis has to talk to some producer or songwriter as per management's request. Because a party is never just a party for the famous she's learned. A party is just a part of the business.

 

"Yeah, I think she's meeting Liam there?" Louis replies.

 

"Oh good, it'll be good to see her" and Louis smiles at her and grabs her hand and walks her to the car.

 

~

At the party Eleanor is chatting with Danielle about Danielle's dancing and Danielle tells her she wishes she could be a backup dancer for Justin Bieber. Eleanor nods but she isn't really paying attention to the conversation. She's much more focused on watching Louis across the room talking to somebody who he doesn't recognise. Harry's standing next to him and leaning into his shoulder. Louis seems to notice, smiles at Harry and squeezes his waist before returning to the nameless man.

 

But his arm is still around Harry and she hates to think it but they DO look like a couple.

 

They fit.

 

"El?" Danielle waves a hand in front of her face.

 

"Sorry," Eleanor shakes her head, "just spaced for a moment, what were you saying?" and Eleanor shakes her head telling herself that she shouldn't let fans put ideas in her head. Danielle is chattering away again and Eleanor turns towards her and resolves to listen this time and stop acting like a paranoid girlfriend.

 

~

Despite her resolution it's only a week later when Eleanor finds herself on tumblr again. She's scrolling through endless photos of Louis and Harry louisandharry Larry. Every once in a while she'll see a picture of her and Louis and Harry cropped in there because apparently any date she and Louis go on, Harry needs to be there too. And she's scrolling past texts posts not reading them because if she's honest with herself she's a little afraid of what they will say.

 

And she comes across a piece of a photoset and on the left is a grey square and the right is one of just her and Louis and she smiles because it's a cute one where they were both wearing sweats and pyjamas at the grocery store and Louis' smiling at her. That was a fun morning, definitely. It was one of the first times she stayed at Louis' and they went out early to pick up as much junk food as they could to spend the day lazing around the flat. Her smile drops slightly as she sees the caption stating "all those things that you and I did first, now you're doing them with her." Eleanor wrinkles her brow for a minute, confused as to why the Cher Lloyd lyrics are there but then the picture on the left loads and it's of Harry and Louis grocery shopping in their silly OnePieces that they love so much.

 

It's a cute picture and she can't help but notice that Harry and Louis are closer together than Eleanor and Louis are and Louis' smile is just a tad brighter.

 

But Eleanor is stuck now and she keeps scrolling and laughing at pictures of Louis and Harry jumping on each other and videos of them fake kissing and stares. Lots and lots of stares. Eleanor doesn't think Louis stares at her like that. Those are Harry stares.

 

She always knew Harry and Louis were close as can be but she never realised just how close. And it makes her think that maybe there's something there behind the stares. Maybe one of the crazy fan ideas is actually real.

 

~

Eleanor is out with Louis and notices that he seems to talk about Harry a lot. He always has some new little story about Harry making him the perfect cup of tea or tripping down the stairs in the morning or finding him watching Disney channel on his own.

 

And usually Eleanor laughs at these stories or smiles and squeezes Louis' hand and they go out to shop or eat and he thinks nothing of it.

 

But today is different. She looks at how he smiles when he tells the stories and the look he gets in his eyes when he says Harry's name. An she smiles because he looks so happy and it's Harry that makes him happy and she knows, just knows, that he and Harry need to be together. They have to be. So Eleanor's mission is set.

 

~

Eleanor can't help herself. Everything Harry and Louis do is just so cute! When Harry rests his head on Louis' shoulder it's cute. When Louis brings Harry tea but not any of the other boys, it's cute. When Harry and Louis look at each other with that grin like "I know something you don't" it's damn cute.

 

She has weirdly, insanely, begun to feel guilty for kissing Louis because she feels like she's cheating and it's crazy but she can't help but drop Louis' hand when she sees Harry's eyes glued to their interlocked fingers. Because Louis' hand isn't, shouldn't be, hers. It should be Harry's. It is Harry's and always will be Harry's and Harry and Louis are both just too stupid to realise it.

 

So she stops giving Louis lingering hugs and taking couple pictures with him because it feels weird. Instead she has told Louis that she doesn't like taking pictures of herself anymore because she's tired of the fans getting a hold of them and dissecting her every move. Louis says he understands.

 

So Eleanor becomes the One Direction unofficial behind-the-scenes photographer. She takes pictures of Zayn and Niall making silly faces and Liam kissing Danielle on the cheek. She snaps one of Perrie and Zayn laughing at Harry's curls going the wrong direction and another of Louis trying to skateboard in the flat. But when she looks back at the pictures she realises that most of the pictures are of Harry and Louis. There are more Larry moments than she can count.

 

Louis is wiping frosting off Harry's cheek with his thumb, Harry is asleep on Louis' lap while Louis is talking to Eleanor with his fingers in Harry's hair. Louis is tackling Harry because Harry won at monopoly. Louis claims it was because Harry stole from the bank.

  
The pictures are just for her. No one ever sees them.

 

But she does find that Danielle has her phone background changed to the picture of her and Liam. So. That could be a thing because it means Danielle saw all the Larry pictures on her phone.

 

And that's really something she doesn't want to share with her friends because it's a little creepy.

 

But when Danielle says nothing she forgets all about it.

 

~

Eleanor is on tumblr a lot. It's summer and she has so much free time and the boys are recording and Sana is traveling and Ella has disappeared with some guy or other and she is bored.

 

So she has read text posts now. Text posts about how perfect Harry and Louis are and she can't help but agree because you would have to be crazy to say that they're not.

 

She sees the screenshots of tweets that Jay has favourited and thinks that maybe she's not so crazy because even Louis' mother sees it, has watched the videos.

 

Eleanor really likes the videos. She laughs and and begs for them to stop being so stupid and fucking get together already. It pains her to see photos of her and Louis in those videos and she just wants to hate herself for being the ultimate cockblock.

 

She sees the fans get discouraged about Larry when they see her and Louis kiss for the first time in public and see less and less Larry.

 

But Eleanor knows that the Larry Thing is as strong as ever and she even has the pictures to prove it.

 

_She has the pictures to prove it._

 

~

It takes another week before Eleanor cracks and makes her own tumblr. She posts the photos she has taken of Larry one by one slowly over the next month. She mixes in reblogs to be less suspicious and tells Louis that her phone has been stolen and that there were a bunch of photos saved there and she's so sorry if they get found and posted on the Internet.

 

But really she's not sorry.

 

She wants Louis to see those pictures because maybe then he will wake the fuck up and see the green-eyed curly haired freak who he's so completely in love with and maybe the curly haired freak will realise that he's in love with the dumbass he lives with.

 

Her followers beg and beg to know where the photos came from and how she got them but she doesn't let herself reply, instead she lets them think whatever they want. Some think she's Louis or Harry themselves. Most are convinced she's Niall because "he is the biggest Larry shipper ever omfg" and “the captain of the SS Larry.”

 

She gets enough messages saying she's Niall that she begins to think that maybe she should have a talk with Niall about the Larry Thing. Because it's hard keeping all these feelings inside and it's hard watching Harry and Louis be so oblivious of each other.

 

So.

 

Niall it was.

 

~

It was an awkward beginning of a conversation because she and Niall don't really hang out on their own. But an hour after Eleanor explained why she was knocking on the door to Niall's flat at 3 on a Sunday, they are sat on his couch together, Niall's laptop between them. Niall is showing her his tumblr and his own pictures of Larry and even confessed (while turning very very red) that he writes some Larry fanfic and hides it on livejournal.

 

And Eleanor begs to see it because she's out of new stories and they laugh for a good ten minutes when they discover that Eleanor has already read all his stories.

And then they laugh even harder when Niall pieces together that Eleanor never lost her phone and that "thelarrything.tumblr" is really Eleanor and that it's one of Niall's favourite blogs because Danielle had told him Eleanor had taken a lot of pictures of Louis and Harry. He hated how Eleanor never shared those pictures with them and was so happy to see that whoever had had stolen the pictures was nice enough to post them to tumblr. But really it was Eleanor the whole time.

 

With tears of laughter in their eyes they promise to send each other new videos and Eleanor says she'll be Niall's beta and it's 10pm and they've missed dinner and Eleanor is walking out the door saying she'll be back next week same time to begin their plan.

 

~

Turns out Niall and Eleanor aren’t actually the best at making plans.

 

So to start they use every excuse possible to get Harry and Louis alone together. When they are all together, Niall will just have to show Eleanor something in a different room right then. And when Eleanor is with Louis and Harry in their flat, she will insist on setting the table, claiming that Louis will break something (which is probably true) and that Harry did the cooking so she owes him. Which leads to lots of Larry time and Larry talks. When Eleanor spends an extra-long time doing the dishes once, she comes in to find Louis cuddled up in Harry’s arms, asleep on the couch. Harry’s got this half smile on his face as he watches the telly and Eleanor is debating between going awww extremely loudly and taking a picture. The fans would go crazy. She compromises my hopping into the bathroom, pulling out her phone, and facetiming Niall. They squeal together and he begs to see so she takes the phone out and slyly pokes it around the corner of the hall.

 

Unfortunately Eleanor isn’t all that sly and Harry had decided that was a good time to glance over the back of the couch. He looks at her quizzically, knitting his eyebrows together.

 

“Umm Eleanor?” he says in a slow voice (slower than normal, actually), “what are you doing?” Eleanor blushes.

 

“Nothing?” she says with a questioning lilt at the end before dashing back to the bathroom as quick as she can where she giggles loudly and Niall’s whole face is shaking because he can’t hold his phone straight through his laughter. So sue her. She’s never been great at coming up with things on the spot. Besides, it was worth it because Harry and Louis were so cute.

 

~

After a couple weeks of much of the same situations (Niall’s almost been caught twice, once by Liam and once by Harry), Louis is out with Eleanor.

 

Eleanor had tried (really she had) to get Louis to bring Harry along. But Louis was dead-set and said he “wanted some alone time with his girl.” Which Eleanor thought was ridiculous because he should be wanting alone time with his Harry, obviously. But Louis was oblivious. Eleanor had met Louis at Niall’s flat where Zayn, Louis and Niall had been playing Fifa together. Niall glared at her when she walked it, not getting that she had no choice.

 

She rolled her eyes and told Louis she would just be a minute before proceeding to yank Niall off the couch and drag him into the hallway to explain. When they head back to the living room Niall looks slightly less disgruntled but still doesn’t look as happy as he usually does.

 

So Louis and Eleanor leave and halfway through their date as they are walking through the park. (Which is nice. Eleanor had kind of forgotten that she did actually like spending time with Louis.) Louis motions for her to sit down on a bench with him. Eleanor complies.

 

“Listen,” Louis fidgets with his fringe, “umm...I just...I..I was wondering if..”

 

“Well spit it out!” Eleanor says, a little exasperated.

 

“AreyoucheatingonmewithNiall?” he says all in a rush and then lets a breath out that he seems to have been holding since this morning.

 

Well that’s not what Eleanor was expecting. She bursts into laughter because the idea of her dating Niall is actually crazy.

 

Louis crosses his arms. “Well don’t laugh at me! You’ve spent more time whispering with Niall in the last month than we’ve spent together in the last three months! You have like all these inside jokes and stuff.” Wow was Louis blind if he thought there was chemistry between her and Niall and he couldn’t see that he and Harry are in love.

 

“I’m cheating on you as much as Michelle is cheating on Barack” Eleanor laughs some more, and then thinks that wow, maybe she has been spending too much time with Niall.

 

~

Unfortunately Louis seems to think that because Eleanor isn’t cheating on him, this means their relationship should go back to the way it used to be. But Eleanor can barely kiss him without feeling guilty, let alone have sex with him. Louis likes to take every possible opportunity to pull her onto his lap or give her kisses or drag her out on dates and all Eleanor can see is the look on Harry’s face when they leave and she just can’t do it.

 

So she begins to avoid Louis. Which sucks because she likes talking to Louis and messing around with him. She likes eating dinner with the boys and Danielle and Perrie. And she really likes watching the Larry Thing in person when they’re all out together but it’s not worth it if it means she has to do couple stuff with Louis. It just feels weird.

 

Two weeks of avoiding and she’s at Niall’s, hiding. (and also they are finally getting through that one huge list of every Larry moment ever.) Nobody knows she’s there except Liam who they had sworn to secrecy. Eleanor missed her Larry sessions with Niall okay? But apparently Liam had caved and told Louis because there was knock at the door and an “open up you two, I know you’re in there!” coming from a voice that definitely sounded like Louis.

 

Niall shut the laptop and walked over to open the door, waving Louis over to where Eleanor is standing.

 

“Yes?” she asks.

 

“You’re ignoring me. And since you claim not to be dating Niall-” he pauses while Niall laughs because he has been laughing about that since Eleanor told him. Then Louis glares at Niall and he laughs his way into his bedroom. Louis looks at Eleanor. Eleanor looks at Louis. “We need to break up,” he says, not breaking eye contact.

 

Eleanor smiles at him, “Well thank fuck! It’s about time!” Louis looks at her bewilderedly because that should not be the response he gets from his girlfriend of almost a year when he breaks up with her. He was prepared for tears or anger but this? Whatever this was? Definitely not this. “So this means you finally realised that you’re in love with Harry?” she continues. Louis’ eyes widen and he turns beet red because what?

 

“Apparently not,” Eleanor says with a sigh. “C’mon Louis. Shut your mouth, we’re going up to your flat.” Eleanor was just tired of Louis being stupid and oblivious and she just wanted Larry to get together and obviously her and Niall’s plots weren’t working and Harry and Louis were never going to do anything on their own so it was time to take matters into her own hands. She marches Louis upstairs to his and Harry’s shared flat. She opens the door (which is unlocked which means Harry is here. Good.)

 

Harry’s sitting on the couch wrapped up in his pink “hers” blanket and Louis smiles at him like he can’t help it and damn Eleanor just wants to shove their faces together. She settles for pushing Louis onto the couch next to Harry. Harry looks at her like she’s crazy and she can’t really blame him because her face is probably a mixture of determination, adoration, and exasperation and wow that’s a lot of tions.

 

“Louis and I broke up,” she announces very matter-of-fact. Harry starts to get a grin on his face before he collects himself and creases his eyebrows together in an attempt to look sorry about this news. He slings his arm around Louis’ shoulder to comfort him and Eleanor rolls her eyes. “Wow Harry you really have an inability to hide your feelings about things. I’m honestly amazed that Louis hasn’t figured out that his feelings for you are returned by now.”

 

Louis goes back to his eyes-wide expression and Harry starts to splutter and Eleanor rolls her eyes for what seems like the hundredth time that day. She feels like she’s 13 again. Except, you know, when she was 13 she wasn’t trying to get her boyfriend and his best friend who also happens to be a guy who’s in the same world famous boyband as him to admit that they love each other. Other than that, it’s exactly like 13.

 

“Well?” she says, “Are you both just going to sit there, or am I literally going to have to force your faces together?”

 

Louis looks at Harry and Harry looks at Louis and they have one of those creepy eye conversations that they have with each other and they both smile at the same time. Harry looks down at Louis’ lips and Louis gets this look on his face like _oh_ maybe that is what he wanted all this time. And Eleanor’s holding her breath in anticipation because she’s been waiting for this for _so long_.

 

But then Harry turns toward her and gives her a look like _what are you still doing here?_ Eleanor’s not okay with that and she crosses her arms and glares at him. She’s going to witness the first Larry kiss whether Larry likes it or not. Harry looks at Louis and Louis shrugs so Harry leans forward and yes finally Louis and Harry are kissing and they both look so happy and Eleanor can’t take it and she takes a picture and pumps her fist before Harry flips her off and she takes that as her cue to leave.

 

She scurries out of the flat and rushes down two flights of stairs to Niall so she can gloat because even though he was there for the first Larry hug, she witnessed the first Larry kiss and he didn’t so ha!

 

Eleanor keeps thelarrything.tumblr and tells Liam about it when he asks (again) why she spends so much time with Niall if they claim to not be dating. Liam has to forcibly stop her from posting her picture of the Larry kiss despite her protests that “it’s what the people want Li!”

 

Eleanor decides that if any of the fans’ ideas were to come true, she’s damn glad that it was the Larry Thing.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! find me on tumblr getalittleclosey :)


End file.
